


Press Your Space Face Close to Mine, Love

by moonflowers



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Angst with a Happy Ending, Because it's me, Dom/sub Undertones, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Intercrural Sex, It's mild but it's there - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M, Mildy subby Billy, Spanking, That somehow does not actually involve much space, Upside Down stuff, sorta post season 2, still the 80s, under-negotiated sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-18 17:18:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16999254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonflowers/pseuds/moonflowers
Summary: Hargrove looked about as sour as usual, brow furrowed as he glared at the kids, hair mussed from the standard issue helmet that came with the suit. Steve couldn't shake the thought that Billy had somehow heard his thoughts about how fucking glad he was that they weren't stuck on the same ship, and torn his way across space purely to piss him off. Honestly, he wouldn’t put it past him. He must have felt Steve staring at him, because his attention snapped up, locking on to Steve with his usual unwavering intensity. He looked about as pleased to see Steve as Steve was to see him.





	Press Your Space Face Close to Mine, Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [letshargroovetonight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/letshargroovetonight/gifts).



> Written for the Harringrove Holiday Exchange. Thanks for organising it all guys.  
> Sooo, this fic is for the wonderful letshargroovetonight. I tried to get in just about everything from your dear creator letter – which I’m sure you’ve realised by looking at the tags lol. Hope you like it :)
> 
> Title from Bowie's Moonage Daydream.

Steve missed things that he’d never expected to miss – a cold, clear blue sky, sun on his face, the smell of grass and pine trees. There were less picturesque things too obviously, like drinking milk right out of the carton, gym class, and his cassette player. Being able to jerk off without worrying if one of the kids might barge in by accident. Cigarettes. Steve wasn’t even much of a smoker, but he hadn’t been prepared for how much not being able to step outside into the frosty night for a smoke when he couldn’t sleep would irritate him. Not _one_ of the kids' damn comic books or nerdy TV shows about space travel had ever touched on that. He missed his mom too, even though he knew she was safely inside another ship, and maybe he kinda missed the _idea_ of her more than the actual her, but. Yeah. 

The kids were in a good mood that afternoon. Lucas was leading them all in an enthusiastic if not quite lyrically accurate rendition of Fat Bottomed Girls as they sat around the kitchen, checking their suits for damage. Not that Hopper would ever let them outside the ship unless it was a life or death situation, but he was also pretty strict about making sure they were all kept in good repair, just in case. And Steve liked Queen, he did, but the kids had been singing the same song for days, and it certainly didn’t make him miss his drawer full of tapes any less.  
They weren’t in such good spirits every day though, which Steve could understand. Some days, it was just all too much for them; stuck with each other and no escape any time soon, and they’d fight like a bunch of kittens thrown in a sack. He got that. If it wasn’t for the stern looks Hopper would give him, and the pleading look on Joyce’s face when things got tense, he thought he probably would’ve joined in with the scrapping more often. The two of them seemed to go back and forth on whether they deemed Steve an adult or one of the kids, depending on circumstance. He didn’t _feel_ like an adult all that often, but somehow, they seemed to believe it. Today though, blessedly, the kids were actually happy to be on the ship, living out the dreams of space exploration forged by their hours of reading, watching, and wishing.

They were being rowdy enough that Steve didn’t notice Dustin’s absence right away. And normally he was the loudest of the bunch, absolutely no filter or volume control, so that was saying something. Doors whooshing shut behind him, Steve slipped out of the room in search of him, trusting the rest of the kids to not break anything or each other. It didn’t take long. He was sitting cross legged by one of the few windows they had, chin in his hand and looking forlorn, face cast a stony purple grey under the dim energy conserving lights in that part of the ship. Steve sensed A Talk coming. He wasn’t sure exactly when he’d become Dustin’s unofficial big brother, though if he had to guess, it had probably started off around last November. A whole bunch of shit had started off around last November, and he felt like he’d been in a daze ever since. 

“Hey buddy,” he said, wincing at the way he sounded like his dad on one of the rare occasions his mother'd insisted they spend some time together, “mind if I sit?”

“I guess not,” Dustin said, so Steve did. 

“They’re missing you in there,” he jerked his head back the way he’d just come, “what’s up?”

“It’s not cool Steve,” he shook his head and sighed, “you’ll laugh.”

“Nah, I won’t,” Steve promised, hoped to hell it was one he could keep.

“I miss my mom.”

“Oh.” It wasn’t quite what he’d been expecting; somehow both more and less catastrophic at once. “Well, I sure as shit can’t laugh at you for that. So do I.”

“What, miss my mom?” Dustin said, some of his usual spark kicking back in.

“Yeah yeah, smartass,” Steve said. “I mean _my_ mom.” He barely spent any time with his mom and he was missing her; Dustin and his mom were fucking attached at the hip. “But uh, Mike and Lucas must be missing their moms too. Have you like, talked to them or something?” Will and Jonathan were lucky enough to have their mom end up on the same ship as them. 

Dustin mumbled something Steve couldn’t quite make out, and wiped angrily at his eye. He looked more miserable than ever under cool, washy purple of the low-level light. Steve wished he could give him the sunshine back, if only for five minutes. They sat in silence a little while after that, just looking out of the window, watching the twinkling, swirling, cold mass of space.

“It’s not like how I thought it would be,” said Dustin, after a while.

“What’s not?” Steve looked away from the stars.

“Space.”

“Oh,” Steve said. “How’s that?”

“It’s kinda lonely,” Dustin said, “and boring. I know it’s stupid to wish for something exciting to happen, after the Upside Down and shit. But… like, in the comic books, there’s always a bad guy, or an asteroid belt, or aliens. They never talk about the in-between parts.”

“I guess it’s the same with any kind of story,” Steve said. “The crazy parts, the aliens and asteroids or… what the fuck ever, are what makes it a story. And real life is all the in-between parts.”

“That sucks.”

“I know it does buddy,” said Steve, thinking about how much he’d hated fighting the Upside Down the second time around, and how much more he’d hated the quiet nights when he knew he was safe but the danger was all he could think about. “I know.”

#

It was too bad Max hadn’t been with them when the alarm for the evacuation went off. She’d been grounded apparently, her and her step brother, for reasons none of the kids seemed to be able to agree on. They all missed her, even Mike, though he probably wouldn’t dream of saying so. And it was obvious El was missing having another girl to hang with, no matter how much she loved the guys. But then, if she had been with them, there was a chance Billy might have been too, which meant he’d be on the same evac ship. Which… was too much for Steve to think about.

“Hey guys.”

He’d been wandering the ship purely to keep his feet busy and head empty when he found Nancy and Jonathan sitting together in the weird, nothing space that they sort of used as a sitting room. Mostly because the lights in there were proper lights, bright and not freaky colours. They were sitting close on the couch, Nance talking animatedly about something, Jonathan smiling soft. 

“Steve,” Nancy interrupted herself mid rant to look up at him, “hi.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh it’s uh, The Catcher in the Rye?" Jonathan said.

“Oh.” He didn't think he'd heard of it.

“You read it, right? For Miss Hampshire’s class last year?” Nancy said expectantly. 

“Nope,” Steve said, and lay down on the floor on his back, feeling it crack as he closed his eyes. He’d been sleeping badly in the cramped and unfamiliar bed, and his back hurt. “But just carry on talking or whatever.” He may not have been able to add anything to the conversation, but it didn’t matter all that much. It was just nice to know they were there.

“Um, okay?” he could hear the question in Nancy’s voice before she got right back into it. “So, like I was saying, if you don’t take into account…”

He dozed a little while, Nance and Jon quietly debating about the book beside him. Things were long over between him and Nancy, but seeing her and Jonathan fall further for each other while the lot of them were stuck in a confined space hadn’t exactly been a fun time. The fucking cherry on top of the goddamn apocalypse. He’d been able to put distance between them at least, back home, while he got over it. And he _was_ over it, over Nancy. But it still bummed him out that she had someone, some small, extra measure of comfort in the fucked up situation they’d all landed in, and he didn’t. Childish maybe, but so fucking what? Everything had sort of gone out of the window when the Upside Down had reared its ugly head. Twice. And then again, with such numbers and strength that they'd rendered the Earth uninhabitable, and they'd had to get on the ships and leave literally everything behind. So yeah, with a little perspective, it was the sort of dumb thing Steve wasn’t going to let himself feel guilty over anymore.

Then there were the kids. He’d been lucky enough to end up on a ship with most of the people in his life he actually cared about. They’d all been at the Byers’, for Will's birthday party, when the alarm to signal the start of it all had gone off. That kid never seemed to catch a break, but the Earth evacuation launching on his birthday just seemed totally unfair, even for him. Steve hadn’t even been planning on staying; just dropping off Dustin and saying hey to the others before he headed back home. But Henderson had turned the puppy eyes on him, and he’d gotten himself dragged into a ball game in the backyard. So he’d stayed, and following the protocol in place meant boarding the nearest government registered ship with whoever happened to be in the vicinity. It could’ve been worse – at least he wasn’t stuck on an open-ended space journey with Tommy. Or Hargrove. 

#

The hiss and crash of their main hatch opening woke him in the middle of the night, soon joined by the kids whisper-shouting to each other in the hall, trying and failing to sneak past his room. Sometimes the whole lot of them piled like puppies into one room to sleep, so if one was awake, it was no surprise if the rest were too. Instantly on alert, he jumped out of bed and grabbed his bat. The kids seemed to get a kick out of it; that his weapon of choice in space was still a baseball bat. No nails this time though, just wood, worn shiny at the handle and dented from years of rough treatment in the Byers’ backyard. He joined the kids in the corridor, the lot of them in their pyjamas and various levels of sleepiness, as they made their way towards the hatch. 

“Lucas,” he said as he fell into step with them – Lucas looked the most awake of the bunch, “what’s happening?”

“Don’t know yet,” Lucas said, giving him major side-eye. Steve sort of wished he’d taken a second to pull on pyjama pants over his boxers as well as picking up the bat. “El said she could hear someone approaching the ship, and the next thing, Hopper’s yelling loud enough to wake up the dead people back on Earth.”

“Right. Just stay back until we know what’s going on, okay?” Steve said, hefting the bat up a little bit.

“What exactly are you going to do with that if it’s aliens?” Dustin pitched in. Traitor.

“No offence,” Lucas eyed the bat dubiously as El hid a smile in her hand, “but you have a baseball bat.”

“What he means,” Will said, “is that it might not be all that useful against aliens.”

“I beat monsters with one,” Steve said, a little hurt on behalf of all baseball bats, “who says I can’t fuck up aliens with one too?”

“Because they’re aliens, Steve,” said Dustin, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “they might have more sinister motives than wanting to take a bite out of you.”

“Like that isn’t enough,” Steve said darkly.

“Whatever,” he heard Mike snort, “this still isn’t sports, Steve.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence Wheeler. And the rest of you little shits aren’t any better, Jesus.”

When they rounded the corner, they were greeted by the sight of Hopper looking thunderous – not all that unusual – and yelling at the two kids whose ship must have come in through their hatch to be quiet. The two of them were ignoring Hopper completely, spitting and hissing at each other like angry cats, both still in their space suits and looking worse for wear as their wreck of an escape pod smoked behind them.

“It wasn’t my fucking fault Max – “ Steve knew that voice.

“Everything is your fault!” He knew that one too.

“Oh yeah? That’s rich coming from you!”

“Just because you don’t care about your dad – “

“That’s right, I don’t!”

“How do I know my mom’s – “

“Oh my God, stop whining Maxine, they would have gotten away in the other pod – “

“Kids!” Hopper barked, loud enough for the two of them to finally stop arguing. Their attention snapped up to the Police Chief, and though he’d already guessed it, Steve still couldn’t help but be shocked at the sight of Max and Billy. “We’re going to go through into the kitchen and talk about this, okay?" he said, calm but leaving no room for argument. "Joyce’ll make sure you aren’t hurt, you can tell us what happened, and we can try to contact the rest of your family. But you’ve gotta stop with the yelling, or you’ll wake the whole damn ship.”

“Um,” Steve stepped forward a little sheepishly, kids clustered behind him despite all their big talk earlier on, peeking around him to get a look at the newcomers, “might be too late for that, Hop.”

“Shit,” Hopper rolled his eyes, looked thoroughly ready to go back to bed and fuck the consequences. 

“Max!” After the split second of silent disbelief they’d all fallen into, the kids were rushing past Steve to get to their friend, all grinning and hugging her and yammering on about what she’d missed and how was she here and was she okay. Steve let them get on with it, and instead looked over to Hargrove. He looked about as sour as usual, brow furrowed as he glared at the kids, hair mussed from the standard issue helmet that came with the suit. Steve couldn't shake the thought that Billy had somehow heard his thoughts about how fucking glad he was that they weren't stuck on the same ship, and torn his way across space purely to piss him off. Honestly, he wouldn’t put it past him. He must have felt Steve staring at him, because his attention snapped up, locking on to Steve with his usual unwavering intensity. He looked about as pleased to see Steve as Steve was to see him.

“Of all the fucking ships…” he heard Billy mutter, before Hopper started wrangling the kids. 

“Alright guys,” he said, cutting through all their excitable chatter, “I know you’re all happy to see Max, but she’s had a rough night, and we’ve got a few things we’ve got to talk about, alright? So, back to your rooms,” he rose his voice over their complaints, “and we’ll talk about it properly in the morning. No arguments! The rest of you, with me.”

Steve sort of wished he’d been sent off to bed with the kids instead of being summoned into the kitchen. They’d all be listening in at the door anyway, he knew Hopper’d only sent them away as a matter of principal. Joyce had appeared with the medical kit to patch up any bumps and scrapes Billy and Max had, though the former had looked about ready to bite her fingers off. He refused to say anything, when Hopper asked them what had happened to their ship. Max was obviously still kind of shook up, but more willing to talk, and told them all, voice shaky but determined, what had happened. Their ship had hit an unexpected belt of debris late that night, and enough damage was caused that emergency ship evacuation was ordered. That seemed to be about it, the rest of their bickering caused by some family shit Steve was too tired to follow. It wasn’t until Hopper told them all to go back to bed and get some rest that he suddenly felt like a little bit of an idiot, propped up half asleep against the cold metal of the kitchen counter, bat still in hand and only in his boxers and worn-thin t shirt. But sleepy as he was, he definitely didn’t miss the look Hargrove gave him on the way out. He looked away quickly, and hoped Billy hadn’t seen the flush hot up his neck.

#

The next couple of weeks passed by in a dull blur of nothing much. Hopper had managed to get in touch with Max and Billy’s parents pretty quick; they’d been picked up by another ship, and were fine. Max looked more pleased about that than Billy did. It gave the kids a bit of a boost too, to have Max and her take no prisoners attitude back with them. El seemed delighted to have another girl to hang with again, Lucas over the moon to have his sort of girlfriend back. It looked like she’d missed them too, jumping back into their dumb games with more enthusiasm than he’d noticed from her before.  
Billy… wasn’t so simple. If anything, he seemed even worse than he’d been at school, where he’d at least bothered to slap on a charming grin every now and then to keep people lapping him up. Now, he was sulky, surly and angry, either snapping at everyone or just plain ignoring them. The barrier around him was almost visible, back always up and pushing everyone away. Generally speaking, Billy being a dick was kinda old news, so Steve was dimly surprised when everyone didn’t just leave him to it. Joyce, Hopper, and even Nancy had tried to get him to soften up a bit, but got their efforts thrown back in their faces. The kids were smart enough to know better, and mostly steered clear of him, other than Max and sometimes – weirdly – El.

And Steve knew it was stupid to even bother making his own attempt at talking to him. But there’d always been something about Billy that made him feel itchy. Not like poison ivy or whatever, but more like… the hair on his arms had been rubbed the wrong way, tingly, and impatient. In his head, and in his chest. And sometimes in his dick, which he mostly tried to ignore. That had kinda dulled a bit after Billy had gone to town on wrecking his face in the Byers’ kitchen, and they’d both silently agreed to stay out of each other’s orbit for a while, aside from Billy's terse apology one cool morning in the school parking lot. But now, whether it was curiosity, stubbornness, boredom, or something else, Steve didn’t know, but he couldn’t stop prodding at him. Mostly, the responses he got were no different from the others every time he tried to make nice; Billy either outright ignoring him or snarling at him until one of them slunk out of the room. But occasionally, Billy’s reaction would go so far in the other direction, Steve didn’t know what to do with himself. Sometimes, he’d flip back to his old tactic of being overly lewd; practically purring at him, wagging his tongue and biting his lip, smirking, preening, stretching up close and arching into Steve’s space, looking pointedly at his mouth or the front of his pants. And while Steve knew it was just another method of Billy’s of getting him to leave him alone – it worked – there were times he couldn’t help but think… _oh._

#

Steve's odd moment of confusion aside, Billy was still a fucking dick. One evening, the kids were all hanging out, mostly talking crap about movies and stuff and bitching that there wasn’t a VHS player on the ship of all goddamn things, Max and Lucas holding hands where they sat on the couch. Hargrove, by some miracle, had lowered himself to staying in the same room with them for more than five minutes. The chatter turned to all the shit they’d had to leave behind that they missed, toys and games and a bunch of nerdy shit Steve had never heard of. Then Max mentioned something her stepdad had bought her last Christmas, and Billy lost his shit. But before any of them could even step in, Max was on her feet and yelling back, stuff Steve didn’t quite understand, about how Neil wasn’t even there to see him, so why was he still acting like this? And yeah Steve had no idea what was going on there, but he did know he wasn’t going to fucking sit there and let Billy yell at a bunch of kids. Again. 

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” he rounded on Steve the moment he’d wrestled Billy out of the room, nostrils flaring and breathing hard with anger. Steve thought it was pretty likely he’d only managed to steer Billy our of the room because of the sheer shock that Steve had dared to lay a hand on him in the first place, after months of pretty much ignoring him at school. He was fucking tired of it. “No one fucking touches me like that Harrington, thought you’d understand that by now. Maybe I gotta remind you, hm?”

“You were being a dick,” he burst out, suddenly even angrier about it now the two of them were alone. “We’ve all got fucking problems man, I mean, look where we fucking are,” he gestured to the plastic walls and metal doors of the ship around them, the spray of stars outside. “But guess what dickhead, that still doesn’t mean you get to take it out on the kids.”

“Max – “

“They were holding hands, how the fuck is that going to hurt anyone?” It was all bubbling up, the pressure of being stuck there on the ship, nowhere to get away from it all, and Billy Hargrove forever being one big mess of confusion for him, and he couldn’t reel himself back in. Didn’t want to anymore. 

Billy was still scowling at him, outraged. But it was without any of the grinning bravado that he threw Steve’s way while rubbing up against him on the basketball court, but with genuine anger. If Steve wasn’t so fucking pissed, he might have wondered if they were about to get a repeat of their brawl at the Byers’ place. “She’s my sister – “

“I don’t care,” Steve cut him off. Ever since Billy and Max had crashed onto their ship, he'd let everything Billy had done to get a rise out of him slide right off his back. Mostly because he was over all that dumb high school shit, now more than ever. So far, all that had achieved was to make Billy worse. “It’s the end of the world, asshole. Be nicer.”

Billy blinked at him, a little wide-eyed, the distance between them thick and heavy. “There he is,” he said eventually, anger dissolved, looking tired and oddly satisfied, “King Steve. I was beginning to wonder whether you’d left him on the ground.”

#

If Steve had thought Billy’d ease up on him after telling him off, he was wrong. If anything, he pushed even harder, needling him at any chance he got to force a reaction out of him. It was almost like he wanted a repeat performance, for Steve to get in his face again. Everywhere he turned, Billy seemed to be there, making some comment about his hair or body or the way he ate, and every time it got a little bit harder just to let it roll off him. 

“You used to date her, right?” Billy said one afternoon, Nancy and Jonathan having just left the kitchen.

“You fucking know I did,” Steve said, irritated, not having forgotten the way Billy and Tommy had jumped to taunt him about it the day after his and Nancy’s inescapably public argument. 

“Hm,” Billy arched his eyebrow, tapped his chin in an overdone parody of thoughtfulness.

Steve grit his teeth, regretting asking already. “What do you mean, ‘hm?’”

“I mean, there’s nothing wrong with mousey lookin’ girls, if that’s your thing,” Billy said, draped over the kitchen counter as he continued to pester Steve, white tee pulled tight across his chest, “but she just has that kinda vibe, y’know what I mean?”

“What vibe?” Steve bit out, eyes still fixed on the comic in front of him, not seeing the words. And he knew, he _knew_ Billy was only chatting shit about Nancy to get a rise out of him, but that didn’t stop it from working. 

“Like she’d rather leave the country than open up her legs for ya.”

“Don’t fucking talk about her like that,” he snapped, and got to his feet. He was well aware Billy was being more of an dick than usual on purpose, desperate to get some sort of reaction out of him for whatever reason of his own. And yet, he couldn’t help but rise up to it anyway.

“Oh,” something in Billy seemed to settle at that, pleased that Steve had finally given him what he wanted, smile spreading slow and thick across his face, “you going to do something about it, Harrington?”

“What is your problem?” Steve squared up to him, finally ready for the fight Billy always seemed to be itching to give him. “What the fuck has anyone on this ship done to hurt you so bad that you’ve got to be like this, huh? What do you want, Billy?”

Billy’s smile was gone now, glaring at Steve as he skipped words altogether and gave him a shove. Steve shoved him right back, making Billy growl and snarl and grab Steve by the front of his shirt, knuckles white and shaking him up a bit. 

Then he kissed him. And everything made a bit more sense.

It was quick and unpleasant, more of a mash of lips and teeth than a kiss. But Steve _understood._ Understood why Billy was always prodding at him, why he kept everyone away, why he was always so hostile. Perhaps even why he’d been that way right from the fucking start. When Billy yanked himself away again, he looked terrified, raw, like he’d messed up big time, like he was about to either punch Steve on the jaw or run. Steve didn’t give him the chance for either. He shoved Billy back up against the wall, kissed him back hard, gave him as good as he got. For a second, Billy was tense underneath him, strained, like he might still fly apart and push Steve away. But then he melted a little bit, opened up his mouth to let Steve in, went slack in his grip, and dick hard against Steve’s thigh.

“Are you...?” Steve’s head eventually caught up with his dick, and he pulled back to look at him. As much as Billy was obviously getting off on Steve taking the reins, he wasn’t going to just thunder on ahead without checking in. His mom raised him better than that. "Is this...?"

Billy nodded, looking shaken, teary and a bit vacant. “Yeah.”

“Do you want me to…” Steve hesitated, not sure how to say what he wanted to without sounding like a moron, “um, take care of you?” To let Billy hand over the control he always seemed to be working so hard to keep, to uncoil, to stop acting so fucking tough for a few minutes. 

“Steve,” Billy said into Steve’s neck, low and rough, arching forward to press his cock harder into his leg. He’d take that as a yes. 

“This was all you wanted huh?” he said, voice strained and fluttering as he eased one hand down the front of Billy’s jeans, the other splayed over the small of his back to encourage him forward into his palm. “You could have just fucking asked, asshole.”

“Please…” Billy growled, squirming, pressed up against the wall and chewing on Steve’s neck.

“Fuck,” Steve hissed as he tugged on the thin skin of his throat, the scrape of teeth. Squeezed at Billy’s cock a little harder than necessary.

Billy gasped out, rutting quicker into Steve’s palm until he came, hot and rushing. Steve barely had time to breathe before Billy had shoved him aside to make his escape, going out into the corridor and leaving Steve hard and aching for him.

#

“You heard from your mom yet ?” Nancy said, mug cradled between her hands. The lights in the part of the ship they were in made her blue, the same way the light used to bounce off Steve’s pool and in through his bedroom window.

“No,” Steve said, the pair of them sitting on the floor by one of the windows, looking out at the sprawling, empty nothingness outside. “Haven’t been able to get through to the ship they should be on.” He wasn’t all that worried, not really. His dad would throw money at anyone he could to get them an easy ride of things. But still… it might have been nice to know for sure, even if the answer wasn’t a good one. “Have you?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, although she looked guilty about it, like she felt bad about knowing for sure her family were safe while Steve didn’t. And it wasn't like there was anything either of them could do about it, but he knew her well enough to know she’d twist herself up over it. “Hop finally got through to them last night. Dad and Holly are with her. Dustin’s mom’s on the same ship, she must have been at Melvald's too when the alarm went off.”

“Oh,” said Steve, surprised Dustin hadn’t mentioned it to him. But then, he’d been… busy. “That’s uh, that’s good. I know he misses her.”

Nancy hummed in agreement, looked through the window at where the blackness was brightened by a thick pink blush of a nebula or space dust or some shit. He was picking out terms at random, he’d have to ask Dustin exactly what it was he was looking at. She pushed her curls out of her face, took a sip of tea before she turned to look at him again. “Yeah, I – what’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“That mark,” she frowned, clenched her hand like she wanted to prod at him. “On your neck.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out she’d spotted the faint, pinkish bitemark Billy had left behind, made darker under the wash of blue. He reached to rub at it, skin a little tender. “Oh. It’s just uh, allergies. Probably the shitty washing detergent the ships are stocked with. Making me go a little rashy, y’know?”

“Sure,” she raised her eyebrow at him, dubious. “It’s just, it looks more like a bite – “

“You remember how itchy I used to get when my mom switched detergents?” he cut her off. 

“…Yeah.”

He shrugged. “Same thing.”

It was clear enough that she still didn’t quite believe him, but the unsubtle and clumsy reminder of their past relationship was enough to make her drop it, to fall into guilty silence. Which Steve might have felt badly about – is wasn’t like he wanted her back, or he felt hurt and bitter about it all like he had in those first weeks – if he hadn’t been so busy realising that Billy was the first person he’d hooked up with since her. That knowledge wasn’t something he felt particularly good or bad about; it was just a fact. And besides, the thing with Billy was so different to things with Nancy. Like the sun snd the moon.

#

It was early afternoon when Billy let himself into Steve’s bunk. The disorientating, drowsy time between two and three pm that tended to leave Steve feeling kinda heavy, too tired to do anything but not tired enough to actually nap. He was holding one hand in the air as he lay down, watching it move back and forth, tinted rosy pink under the low energy lights. But he snapped out of it pretty quick when Billy stormed in, looking particularly tense and angry, even for him. 

“Um. You okay there, Hargrove?” he said, getting to his feet after five minutes had passed and Billy’d still said nothing, just paced up and down the short length of the room, biting at his thumbnail in agitation.

“No,” his mouth twisted as he rounded on Steve like he’d only just noticed he was there, pushing his hair roughly back from his face, dull pink lights catching and deepening the shadows. “No I’m not fucking okay.”

“Okay,” he hesitated. Every fucking second with Billy was like walking on thin ice – you never knew what was going to make him crack, splinter apart. “What’s the problem?” 

“It’s this fucking ship!” Billy said, slapping his hand against the wall and leaving the metal ringing, snorting like a winded bull. “It’s being trapped on this fucking ship just like I used to be trapped in my own house with my dad. And I’m not fucking stupid, I know he’s not here, but that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t just leave, and I – “

“You what?” said Steve quietly, not wanting to stoke up his obvious panic, when he didn’t continue. But the question seemed to ground him a little. He shuddered, visibly collected himself.

“I wanted to ask if you could…" he began stiffly, "do something for me.”

“Do something?” 

“It’s askin’ a lot, I know that,” Billy said, face flush-darkened and obviously embarrassed by what he felt compelled to ask him for, but chin tilted up, defiant. Eyes clear, and voice steady; he knew himself well enough to know what he was asking. Steve didn’t doubt that for a second. “But I’m – I’m desperate alright?” he said through clenched teeth. “I’m only asking you because there’s nobody else, and I need this, so don’t go feeling special on me, pretty boy.”

Steve cleared his throat, wondering what exactly Billy had searched him out for. “What uh, what do you need?”

“I want you to hit me.”

“What, like punch you?” Steve said, already shaking his head. “I’m not doing that, man, what the fuck – “

“No, dumbass,” Billy cut him off, impatient, like Steve was the one marching into people’s bunks and demanding rough foreplay. “I mean like this,” he leaned around Steve to swat him across the ass.

“Oh,” it was Steve’s turn to feel a little winded. He didn’t stop to think about it anywhere near as much as he probably should have. “Sure.” His voice came out unsteady, but he could already feel a throbbing in the pit of his belly at the thought. The memory of Billy hard against his thigh, body gone pliant underneath him as he worked himself against Steve’s hand. It wasn’t something he’d really played around with much before – it sure as hell hadn’t been something Nance was in to – but damned if he didn’t want it now.

“Good,” was all the response he got from Billy before he was stripping down, already half hard, and wound so tense Steve could practically feel him buzzing from across the room, to throw himself on his elbows and knees, ass up, on Steve’s bed. “Fucking get on with it, Harrington.”

“Uh huh.” Steve was still clothed as he clambered to join him on the bed, dick harder by the moment, denim against the soft backs of Billy’s bare thighs. He sort of wanted to be naked too, as much skin on skin as possible, the thickness of Billy’s muscled frame pressed close. But he liked the small thrill of this too, still fully clothed with Billy bared underneath him. He didn’t look real; lit up pink and perfect, the precise lines of a comic book hero.

“Are you just going to look at it, or…?” Billy prompted him.

“Keep your hair on, big guy.” Steve took a moment just to run his hand along the curve of his ass, feeling the hot skin at the tops of his thighs, dropping a haphazard bunch of dry little kisses to one cheek, fingers playing over the other. “You ready?” 

“I was fucking ready hours ago you bitch – fuck!” The sharp slap Steve gave him made him jolt and curse, head sinking down between his arms. 

“God,” Steve said, unprepared for the strength of the reaction from Billy, or the kick his cock gave in his underwear at the sight of him, the noise it made. He slapped again, more sure of himself, then ducked to press a kiss to the hot and stinging skin he’d left behind. He lay a few more down, Billy groaning and gasping and whole body drawn up tight, muscles in his back twitching and the curve of his ass redder with every slap. He wished the pink haze of the lights did less to hide it. “You’re doing great, baby,” Steve said, fucking drunk on the sight of him, the need to make him feel good, “you’re so good.”

Billy was pretty far gone, but not so much that he couldn’t find the strength to reach down to touch himself, jerk himself off as Steve continued to alternate his slaps with the odd kiss or bite or lick. He was fucking wrung out after he came, choking off a whine as he spilled over his hand and Steve’s sheets. But he still insisted, dopey eyed and rough voiced, that he wanted Steve’s dick in his mouth. Steve was too struck by the idea to say much in response, he just lay back as Billy crawled over him, tugged his painfully hard dick out of his jeans to suck him off, wet and sloppy and messy and perfect.

Steve had barely caught his breath before Billy was shrugging back into his clothes, still hot in the face, voice gruff and avoiding Steve’s eye. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Because what the fuck else was he meant to say to that?

“Just remember – “

“You only asked me because there’s nobody else,” Steve said. “I know. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Fucking right it doesn’t,” said Billy, then he was gone.

#

They kept on doing it. Steve always let Billy come to him first. Sometimes it was clear he was having a bad day, glaring and shaking and coiled tight like he wanted to burn the whole world down. He was a bit late on that front; it was already burning. Other times he was just a bit grouchy, every move Steve made earning him a bitchy comment, until it escalated into a shoving match and one of them with their pants around their ankles. And sometimes it was obvious he was just plain bored, and Steve a convenient way to pass the time. But each time, one thing stayed the same; Billy always left afterwards. It didn’t mean anything. Just the means to an end or whatever.  
But there was a moment a few nights back, when Steve hadn’t been able to sleep and was especially thankful that Billy had sought him out, that things shifted slightly. After they were finished, spent and hot and muscles aching with release rather than tension, Billy had turned to him. His lips were slack and eyes downcast, still lit an unearthly pink by the hum of the energy conserving light, and looked as though he was about to say something not awful, and it had been on the tip of Steve’s tongue to do the same. But they said nothing. They weren’t anything. Billy left again.

#

They still weren’t all that nice to each other. If it weren’t for all the fucking around, the shoulder barges and overly aggressive flirting that was actually leading somewhere now, they might as well have been back in Hawkins. About the nicest Billy got was shoving Steve into an alcove and covering him with sharp, biting kisses. Dustin had almost caught them that time, and he knew Nancy had clocked the marks around his throat. Through it all, Billy felt the need to keep on insisting he wasn’t queer and he wasn’t a bitch. Which was like, twelve kinds of infuriating, because Steve had never said either of those things to him. He could only guess he’d been hearing it somewhere else, or that he called himself those things often enough inside his own head that it had started to stick. It wasn’t just Billy though; Steve wasn’t exactly great at airing out his feelings either. Before Nancy, nothing had ever really run deep enough for him to get worked up about it, and after, he was wary of wearing his heart on his sleeve in fear of it getting ripped away again. Both of them were just as closed off and hostile as each other. In the privacy of his own head, Steve could just about admit that he was feeling… something, about Billy, but he was too freaked to say it out loud. The scariest thing about the whole mess was that he was starting to feel like didn’t know what he’d do without him there. Which was fucking crazy, because they were barely even civil to each other on a daily basis. 

It sounded stupid, but when he was with Billy, he missed home less. Or felt like he had it all back, almost. Those few moments before Billy would pull away from him, while their breath was still evening out, both of them slack and sated, Billy’s hair twisted through his fingers and blue eyes momentarily softened, he could remember it all more clearly. The vast stretch of blue summer sky over Indiana, ridge of trees along the skyline, the dry swish of yellow grass the kids chased each other through. He’d bury his face in the warm juncture of Billy’s neck, and feel all of it, wondered what things might have been like if they'd done all this sooner. Then he’d push Steve away and it was a little bit like he’d lost it all over again. Which was pathetic. Steve knew that even without Billy having to tell him, which he surely would have if given half a chance. So he’d harden his face to match Billy’s, turn away while he dressed, and not say a word when he walked out the door. 

#

Not for the first time, Steve was pissed that no one had bothered to stop and think that lube might have been a useful thing to stock on space ships for a full scale Earth evacuation. 

“Just fucking stick your dick between my thighs, Jesus fuck Harrington, it’s not complicated. You’re fucking wet enough.” Despite that, Billy still spat on his hand before grabbing Steve’s cock anyway. Dick. 

“Are you sure?” Steve choked, although it was pretty fucking redundant with Billy pushing back against him already.

“Well I fuckin’ trust you more than anyone else on this ship, so…”

“Right.” Steve tried not to dwell on that. 

“Just don’t get any fucking ideas," Billy gasped out as he slid Steve's cock between his legs, tensed his thighs, "it’s still just fucking, okay?”

“I know, you don’t have to remind me every time, jeez.”

“It’s _convenient,”_ he spat.

“I know,” Steve said quietly, turned them slightly so that he was more on top of Billy than lying behind him, his body along the length of Billy back and holding him down on the sheets, pushing Billy’s hair aside to kiss the back of his neck, soft enough that Steve thought Billy’d probably laugh cruelly at him for later on. 

Considering how desperate Billy had always seemed to prove himself top dog back at home, snarling, growling and pushing until everyone knew their place beneath him, Steve was still left in awe every time he gave him the lead. He didn’t speak other than a short ‘yeah’ when Steve checked he was doing alright, a series of grunts and whines and gasps into the pillows. It was Steve who moved them, Steve who held Billy’s wrist to keep him in place, Steve who rocked forward into the thick softness of the flesh between Billy’s thighs. He snuck his other hand up Billy’s front between the mattress and his chest to pull at his nipples, smiling into Billy’s shoulder when he swore. There were tears in Billy’s eyes by the time he was coming, pulsing in Steve’s hand and dripping into the bedding.  
And after, he stayed a while. Not for long, but he stayed. He held onto him, soft and grumpy, grabbing at handfuls of Steve’s ass too keep him close while they came down together. The way he clung so tightly, buried his face in Steve’s neck and wouldn’t meet his eye, made him wonder if the closeness was something Billy wasn’t letting himself have rather than something he didn’t want. But those ten minutes he allowed Steve seemed to put him in more of a rush to leave him than ever, shirt on backwards and pants barely done up when he left the room without another word. So perhaps Steve was wrong about him wanting more after all.

#

Steve regretted wishing for something to come along and break up the monotony of the weeks spent drifting through space when it actually happened. They found out afterwards that it wasn’t just their ship either; half of the ships launched from the state had gotten caught up in it, taken hold of by the horribly familiar vines, the very same ones they’d fought off twice, that had since grown so strong that they’d made Earth impossible to live on, and no longer just the secret fear of a small group of ordinary people from Indiana. They should have known the filth of the Upside Down would cling to humanity somehow, find a way to follow them away from their choked planet to spread over whatever new home they might claim.

While they slept, the invasive, creeping vines pumping poisonous spores crept through the ship, sticky flower buds that opened to reveal rows of needle sharp teeth, hissing and drooling and uncoiling to grab and take a bite out of whatever they could. How they survived in space, Steve wasn't smart enough to take a guess, but as long as they could die in space he wasn’t all that bothered. The kids didn’t find his baseball bat all that funny anymore when he put it to the same use as his old one, and took the head right off a plant about to take a bite out of Mike. Though unfortunately that left his right side open to attack and another one of the bastards sunk its teeth into his shoulder. He didn’t even fucking notice until it was over, the walls and floor of the ship a mess of cut off vines and squashed flower-heads, spatters of black goo on the windows. He saw the blood down his arm, the red flash of emergency lights, and passed out not long after he realised they’d won.

#

He woke up in his bunk to the smell of antiseptic, and the kind of honey and cigarettes smell that always lingered on Joyce Byers. Which was confusing, until he shifted and felt a painful pull in his shoulder.

“Shh honey don’t move too much,” his eyes focused and Joyce was crouched above him, soft purple under the glow of the medical bay lights, gentle hand on his uninjured shoulder to keep him down. “You got a nasty bite from one of those plant things, okay? I’ve patched you up, and it’ll heal just fine, but it’s going to hurt like bitch for a while. So you’ve gotta keep still. You understand?”

“Yeah,” Steve’s throat felt like he’d been swallowing sand. “I got it.”

“Okay,” she smiled, eyes tired, and eased back a little bit. “It was very brave of you, sweetie.”

“Nah,” he said. “I was just doing what I had to. You guys are… family or whatever, so. I wasn’t about to let the fucking space plants eat any of you.”

“I know," she said. "But it was still brave.”

“And what the fuck is all this shit doing in space?” he said, hearing the crackle of fear in his voice. “The whole reason they packed us all off the planet was to escape them.” _It wasn’t fair._

“I don’t know," Joyce said, voice faltering, the worried look she almost always wore settling back over her face. "We’ll just have to hope it was only us that had to deal with it. At least we know what we're up against.”

“Mm.” Steve doubted that. The world wasn’t that kind.

“Billy’s… been asking after you,” she said carefully, watching Steve’s face like she was looking for something. “He’s helping Hop clean up the mess, but I can go let him know you’re awake, if you want?”

“Yeah,” he said, a little thrown by that. He wouldn’t have expected Billy to admit anything of the sort, even less so out loud. “I - thanks.”

She smiled, like she knew how touched he was by that, and brushed the hair back off his forehead before she left.

Two minutes later, and Billy was barrelling in like the place was on fire, kneeling by the bed and scowling at him, an expression at odds with the soothing purple of the lights. 

“Don’t you fucking do that.”

“Um,” Steve said, feeling like he’d missed something, head foggy with painkillers, “do what?”

“Go throwing yourself in danger without a fucking thought,” he snarled, curling his fingers firmly between Steve’s on his uninjured side.

“I’m fine,” Steve said, still feeling like he’d missed a step, “and I couldn’t just let that thing take a chunk outta Mike, what was I supposed to do?”

“I know, _fuck,”_ Billy said, still glaring, but looking down at their linked fingers now. “Harrington – it’s not just fucking.”

“What?”

“You heard me, I – “ Billy cut himself off, lips pressed together and looking like he either wanted to cry or hit something, words pulled painfully out of his mouth one by one. His skin was lit a cool purple under the lights, lashes fine and dark against his cheek. “I… shit, Steve. I _need_ you. How fucking dumb is that?”

“Then that makes two of us,” Steve said, watching as his words sank in, and Billy’s face uncrumpled in surprise, like he’d been expecting Steve to turn him away. “Are you goin’ to fucking kiss me or what, big guy?”

He did, long, but soft, like he was afraid he was going to break him, which seemed pretty fucking rich after all the shit they’d pulled. But Steve could appreciate it, appreciate what Billy was saying to him by kissing him like that. They weren’t nothing.


End file.
